The present invention relates to vertical take-off and landing aircraft and, more particularly, to vertical take-off and landing aircraft employing a channel wing and sources of thrust positioned at the trailing ends of the channels in the wing.
Vertical lift aircraft employing a channel wing and propellers at the rearward ends of the wing channels are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,437,684 to Custer discloses a vertical lift aircraft with a pusher type propeller at the rearward end of each wing channel. To achieve vertical lift, the wing is tilted relative to the propellers, the propellers remaining in fixed positions. The wing is tilted about its rearward end so that the lower edge of the locus of rotation of the tips of each propeller remains at a fixed distance relative to the rearward edge of its associated wing channel extends below the rear end of the wing at the wing channels.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,937,823 to Fletcher discloses a vertical rising take-off aircraft employing pusher propellers combined with U-shaped channels in a wing. Each U-shaped channel and its associated propeller are tilted as a unit to achieve vertical take-off, the channels and propellers tilting downward from front to back so that the thrust is directed downwardly and rearwardly to achieve vertical take-off lift.